Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

Eric Gray won the Burlington Fire Department chili cook-off on Saturday. His creation, called Sweet Breathe VT Smoked Chili, featured local ingredients including maple syrup, Switchback and dry seasoning from Teeny Tiny Spice Company in Shelburne. / Courtesy photo

More

ADVERTISEMENT

“Drum roll, please,” said Tim Kavanagh, as he prepared to announce the winner of the chili cook-off Saturday at Nectar’s.

Eyes turned to Jon Fishman, standing in front of the stage. Fishman, wearing civvies, was not in his more likely spot: seated at a drum set on the stage where he played long ago gigs with Phish.

The drummer played an air riff, and Kavanagh announced the winner: Eric Gray, 40, of South Burlington took top honors in the chili cook-off, a fundraiser for the Burlington Fire Department.

Gray’s chili, called Sweet Breathe VT Smoked Chili, featured local ingredients including maple syrup, Switchback, and dry seasoning from Teeny Tiny Spice Company in Shelburne. Gray’s topping was made with crème fraîche and cumin. The winning chili was served by a cute assistant, Gray’s son, Aiden, 5.

Gray competes in barbecue competitions around New England and his chili — from a recipe that was part research, part original — had smoked brisket (10 hours) and smoked pork in it. He also put the cooked chili on the smoker, over apple and cherry wood, to infuse it with smokey flavor.

“I like competing and I like cooking,” said Gray, a software project manager. “I always set high goals for myself.”

Fishman was one of eight judges at the chili cook-off, a crew that included myself and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger. The crowd got to judge too, picking a people’s choice award. The chili cooks also voted for their favorite chili.

Nectar’s intends to make the chili cook-off an annual event, according to Brian Mital, who books talent there. Saturday’s inaugural effort raised $1,200 for the fire department. It attracted 21 pots of chili and a crowd more than 10 times that number.

People paid $5 to taste chili, vote for a crowd favorite, listen to a two-man band play Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young covers, and drink beer with friends.

“I came because it’s a beautiful day — to eat some chili and hang out with my friends, ” said Ravi Parikh, 33, an energy efficiency specialist at Burlington Electric Department.

(Page 2 of 2)

The people’s choice award, tabulated by secret ballot, went to Neil Solis, chef of El Cortijo. He prepared a green chili with pulled chicken and offered small cups of gazpacho as a palate cleanser. (This was No. 19 of 21 chilis; at that point, some kind of cleanser was in order.)

Solis brought 4 ½ gallons of the chili to the showdown. “I don’t want to run out,” he said. “That’s not how you win.”

The chili cooks also selected their favorite dish. Solis voted for the smoked prime-rib chili made by Lake-View House Restaurant. “There was a lot of good chili there,” he said. “Theirs (Lake-View House) was sweet and smokey — that stuff was killer.”

The winning chef’s choice, also killer, went to a team called Drewsauce, which made chili featuring black bear meat.

Making his way through the throngs, with stops at each of the 21 chili stations, Weinberger described the judging duties as “sort of an endurance event.”

Then we talked about his own endurance event in the summer of 1989, after Weinberger’s freshman year at Yale. That summer, in a sports writing gig that shares characteristics with a Phish tour, Weinberger visited all 26 Major League Baseball stadiums. The former catcher for the Woodstock Wasps watched a ball game at every park, and wrote a Saturday column for the Valley News.

But chitchat was secondary to chow Saturday at Nectar’s. There was chili to be eaten, in mind-numbing (mouth-numbing?) amounts: venison and bourbon chili, chili with seafood and sausage — made by three sisters from Middlebury and winner of the most creative award — chili served with avocado, and one slow-cooked for a few days in Richmond. There was an entry that came with an unusual condiment: Tum’s. The vegetarian winner had pineapples, coconut milk and sprouts in it.

The down-home event became, momentarily, touchy-feely: I overheard someone say — a la Barbara Walters — “If I were a chili, this is what I’d be.” I lost track of which pot the speaker identified with.

I was fond of an entry made at the firehouse around the corner. It was cooked Friday night by firefighter Chris Laramie, who was “stuck at work” during the cook-off, said fellow firefighter Mark McDonough. The firehouse chili had surprise snap and soupy-rich texture; it was studded with eye round beef and apple-wood smoked bacon.

McDonough dutifully served his compatriot’s chili. He said that eating meals together is “everything” for firefighters, who live and work together in 24-hour shifts.

“The good chefs take turns cooking,” McDonough said. “And the bad chefs get really good at washing dishes.”

The support of the community, as demonstrated by Nectar’s fundraiser, “blows you away,” McDonough said.

“It blows you away that people care so much to do this,” he said. “The firehouse and chili go hand-in-hand. It’s a fantastic idea.”

Contact Sally Pollak at spollak@burlingtonfree press.com or 660-1859. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/vtpollak. You can hear Sally and other Savorvore writers on the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Public Radio collaboration show, VPR Cafe, Sundays at 10:45 a.m.